STUDENT SUPPORT (December 7, 2011)
I dreamt that I was talking with two graduate students and a lecturer from the University of Reading about financial support for a project the two students were conducting. I do not remember who my colleague was, but both students were from Hong Kong. We agreed to award them a couple of thousand pounds, which was not enough for their purposes. But then I suggested that they had better look outside the university, as well, for their project was a good one. I do not remember what it was about, though. At some point I started telling them how I recently went to a large and famous design company in Hong Kong in search of money for student support. I went together with Peter Lansley, a former colleague from Reading, and we were quite successful. We got a hundred-thousand pounds. Feeling victorious, we kept talking with the representatives of the company only to learn that they had just awarded twenty-million pounds to Harvard University. The money was also meant for student support. It took us a while to calm down after such a startling revelation. Harvard is Harvard, I finished my story, but the difference in the money awarded was still stunning to us both. The students did not say anything in connection with my Hong Kong experience, but it was obvious they were already thinking about additional sources of funding for their project. I marveled about the dream when I woke up. Nothing of the sort has ever happened to me either in Reading or anywhere else.